(Reminder: the Ada Historical Society charter membership drive is 5-6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 7, with a reception at the Railroad Depot. $10 individual, $15 family. All are invited to go to Viva Maria’s at 6:30 to continue the conversation over dinner.)
By Monty Siekerman
Wilson Sporting Goods makes Ada famous, but at one time the building was going to be the home of the College of Engineering. The Great Depression put a stop to that idea, which is probably a good thing because construction began this week on a $30 million new Engineering Building in the heart of campus.
What today is the Wilson plant was first McCurdy Manufacturing, which was successful for a time making grain haulers, those red, loud-sounding bins pulled behind slow-moving tractors to take corn, wheat and beans to the elevator. The Depression was about to occur. McCurdy sales slumped, then it went into bankruptcy.
In 1928, the manufacturing plant was sold to the university, which was going to use the building for engineering instruction. Then, the market crashed, that idea was dead (probably a good thing, as it turned out).
Luckily for the university, it sold the building to Connor Organ Company, but the Depression got worse, and the organ company quickly closed.
Finally, in 1937, the Ohio-Kentucky Manufacturing Company bought the building and started producing sports equipment, including the football. Wilson bought out O-K and its all history now, the famous Made-in-Ada NFL Football...there is even an annual festival surrounding the pigskin. O-K and Wilson added on to the building many times.
When the building was McCurdy (as shown in this photo) it was not nearly the size it is today.
